Survival
by DalekOswin
Summary: When the world is changing around you, every day becomes life or death. Normal life becomes a long lost dream as you fight through a living hell, knowing only one thing- you have to survive. SYOC open.
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned GONE, Caine and Brianna would have survived, so clearly I don't own GONE.**

**Hey :) Oswin here, I've decided to attempt an SYOC as my first story, as it seems like a fun thing to do and the plot bunnies for this story keep attacking me. I know, I know, these things hardly ever get to the story and are usually just abandonned, but I promise I won't abandon this! So, without further ado, THE STORY! *Dramatic music***

Zoe slouched back into her chair, her eyes glazed over with boredom as the teachers voice droned through the lab.

"Ugh, when will it end?" she groaned in a hushed whisper, leaning back further so that her best friend Jake (who was sitting on the bench behind her since an incident involoing potassium and an Ofsted inspector had lead to them being forbidden from sitting together) could hear.

"Zo, we've been in here for five minutes, you know that right?" Jake said, not even looking up from the paper on which he was dilligantly taking notes.

"...Yep, totally. Definatly knew that" She lied, staring at the clock in bewilderment. Was she going mad, or had it said 10:55 rather then 10:35 the last time she looked? "It's just that time goes slower when you're bored out of your mind".

"Sure it does" Jake sighed as he started to write out an equation.

"You are such a nerd" She said.

"Thank you" Jake smirked, as always taking it as a compliment.

"You're not welcome" Zoe snarked and rolled her eyes. While Jake was even lazier then her in most subjects (and that was saying something), he was damn near obsessed with chemistry. Which, while good for him, meant a lesson of pure boredom for Zoe.

"Wake me when it's over" she sighed, slumping onto her desk. The equations on the board blurred and warped before her dyslexic eyes, and she mentally cursed Dr Brown for having such crappy handwriting. Resigned to her fate of complete and utter boredom, Zoe sighed heavily rested her head on the desk.

Wait, what the hell?!

Zoe's head snapped up as she stared at the front of the classroom. No way, that was just not possible.

Dr Brown had vanished. And it wasn't like he'd just walked out of the classroom either. Where he had stood just a split second ago, a shattered beaker of chemicals smoked as it began eating into the plastic of the whiteboard pen he had been holding. He was gone.

Zoe looked around the classroom, just to check she wasn't going crazy, but nope, everyone else had seen it too.

Silence hung over the classroom for a few seconds, and then the room descended into chaos.

Voices blurred together in the commotion as kids tried to wrsp their minds around what just happened. Among others Zoe saw Melody Saxon staring at her hands with a look of horror as if she'd just murdered someone, Connor Aderton rushing out of the classroom to check that Dr Brown wasn't outside and Paige Sanford shouting over the lot of them to try and restore some sort of order.

"Okay please tell me you have some sort of sciency-wiency explaination for all of this" Zoe said, her voice full of panic.

"I-I have no idea" Jake said, his eyes wide in shock. Zoe could almost see the gears turning in his head as he tried to find some sort of scientific explaination for what was happening.

But Zoe knew that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to explain this. She may not have paid attention in school, but even she knew that people didn't just dissapear. Whatever was happening, science couldn't explain it. The world was changing before her eyes. Normal wasn't an option any more. Whatever happened next, Zoe knew that it would be far from simple.

**Hope you liked the prologue :) now for the info stuff. The story takes place in a fictional town called Skybrook situated on the coast of England. It is a small, holiday town with a population of about 200 kids. Near to the town, Sanford Institute, a youth detention center for young offenders. The town is a popular tourist spot, especially in the summer, which is when this story is set. **

**I want creative, origional characters for this story but I do have a few rules. **

**1. For the love of daleks NO MARY SUES**

**2. You can submit as many characters as you like, but for every two characters with powers you make you must submit one normal character. (No getting out of this, even I'm doing it)**

**3. Young offenders must be over 10 years old. **

**4. You have to reveiw. If you submit a character then don't reveiw at all, don't expect your character to live very long. **

**5. On that note, no flaming me if I kill off your character. It's the FAYZ, people die. **

**6. No four bars, at all. **

**7. I don't mind reveiw submissions, but anons please put your name on the reveiw so I know who you are.**

**Name:**

**Nickname(s): **

**Age (5-15):**

**Gender: **

**Town, YDC or other:**

**Crime (If YDC):**

**Mutant or Normal:**

**Power (If mutant):**

**Bars (If mutant):**

**Personality:**

**Likes:**

**Dislikes:**

**Fears:**

**Habbits/Mannerisms:**

**Types of people they like:**

**Types of people they hate:**

**Appearance:**

**Usual style of clothing:**

**Any weapons?:**

**Family:**

**Friends:**

**History**

**Strengths:**

**Weaknesses:**

**How would they react to the FAYZ:**

**Could they kill a person:**

**Would they sacrifice themselves to let others live:**

**On a scale of 1-10 (1 bring completely good 10 being completely evil) how good or evil are they:**

**Thanks for reading! A list of accepted characters will be on my profile :)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Wow! I can't beleive the response this story has had! I was expecting five, maybe six OCs, but I just keep getting more :) Thank you so much for all your characters, I'm really looking forward to writing about them all. I do need more YDC characters though as I only have four. Don't be afraid to make your OC evil, every story needs good villans :) **

**Anyway, sorry for the long authors note, and for the shortness of this chapter but I hope you like it! (cookies for anyone who notices the Death Note referance)**

Luke Costello stared absent mindedly out the window as they drove through a seemingly endless expanse of forest. The music in his headphones was turned up as high as he could, but it still didn't doo much to drown out his Mom and Skyler singing along to the radio. He sighed as he checked his ipod- 10:35- still another hour in this goddamned car.

Not that he was actually looking forward to arriving at their desitnation: they were on their way to visit his younger sister Kara in Sanford Institute. As much as Luke loved Kara, there was something about seeing her in prison that he just hated. It made him feel like he'd failed, that it was his fault. Though their parents tried their best, they travelled a lot for work, and even when they were home spent most of their time locked away in their office. Luke had pretty much raised Kara and Sky since he was six, so the fact that Kara had for some reason, God knows what, stole a sports car and drove it through the front ofa shopping center, hurt him far more then it did the rest of the family.

_Oh well_, Luke thought, _we'll only be here for a few days, what's the worst that could happen?_

Later, Luke would look back on that thought and wonder if the events that happened next were the universe's way of proving just how bad things could get. If that was the case Luke wanted to go up to the universe and punch it in the face.

Because as soon as the thought crossed his mind, the car swerved to the side and Skyler's singing turned to screams.

Luke immediatly yanked his headphones out and grabbed Skyler's hand. "Sky? Sky what's wrong?" he cried, his eyes fixed on the terrified face of his ten year old sister. But Skyler didn't need to say anything, Luke knew the problem as soon as the car swerved manically to the side, throwing him and Skyler against the window.

"HOLY SHIT!" Luke yelled, lurching forwards to grab the wheel. Their parents were gone, holy shit they were just gone.

He couldn't think about that now, they were crashing, Skyler was in danger. Luke turned the wheel hard and the car swerved back towards the path, but the momentum was too much. The car skidded to the side and Luke's eyes widened in fear as he saw the edge of the cliff.

There was nothing he could do, it took less then a second for the car to slide over the edge, for their fate to be sealed. They were going to die.

Luke let go of the wheel and fell back in to his seat, wrapping his arms around Skyler and holding her close as the ground rushed up to meet them.

"I'm so sorry Sky" he whispered as tears fell down his face. People say that your life flashes before you when you're about to die, but it really doesn't. All Luke could see was the cliff flying past them as they came closer and closer to the ground. There was a flash of blue light as the car hit the ground, and then...nothing.

* * *

"Holy shit did you see what happened?"

"Yeah, everyone just vanished!"

"Ohmygod maybe we're dead?"

"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!"

Never in her life had Amy Valeri been so tempted to strangle her classmates. Sure, this was insane, bordering on nightmareish, but that was no excuse for people to start acting like panicky idiots. She rolled her eyes as a yet another chorus of 'ohmygod's rose up from a group of girls.

"Can you beleive these people?" Amy said, turning to her adoptive brother Lucas.

"Oh come on Amy, the grown ups have just vanished, they kinda have the right to panic" Lucas said.

Typical Lucas, always the nico one, Amy thought. "That's exactly why they shouldn't panic! We should be trying to find out what's going on, not running around like idiots!"

"I couldn't agree more" came a voice from behind her.

Amy turned around to see Jake Mckenzie and Zoe Valdez standing there.

"Thank you voice of reason" Amy smiled, "So what do you think we should do?"

"Err, rob the shopping center?" Zoe smirked. "Declare ourselves the gods of the new world?"

"Not helping Zo" Jake smiled, "I was thinking more like rob the physics department"

Okay that was it, all hopes of intelligant conversation just flew out the window. "Brilliant" Amy sighed, "Am I the only one taking this seriously!"

"I am serious" Jake said, "We could grab some radiation sensors or something and scan the areas where the adults disapeared".

"...Okay that is clever" Amy said, already on her way out of the room as Jake started explaining his plans.

Lucas glanced to Zoe, "Okay I don't know if it's just the wierdness speaking but I have no idea what they're on about"

Zoe shrugged, "Me neither. But when in doubt follow the geeks" she said with a smile, following Jake and Amy out of the room.

* * *

_Almost there...almost there, just a few more minutes and we'll be out the door..._

Eliza kept repeating those words in her mind as she strapped on her shin pads, trying her best to just smile and nod as her parents chattered away, despite the fact that the tournament would be starting in half an hour.

"Oh Eliza I'm so proud of you!" Her mother grinned, "Only 14 years old and already learning surgery!"

"Well what else would you expect from our daughter?" Her father said, his smile just as big as his wife's.

"Well it's all thanks to you that I can do it" Eliza said, subtly moving to corral them out the door.

"Of course, but it was your hard work that made if possible" Her father said, finally grabbing the car keys from the shelf and heading out the door.

Eliza was usually a very patient person, but she's spent weeks studying just so her parents would take her to this foorball tournament, and she wasn't going to miss it because of her parent's dawdling.

She smiled as at last both her parents were out the door and heading towards the car, checking one last time that she had everything with her. Of course, she did. She'd been preparing for this all day. Despite her parent's obsession with her being a doctor, Eliza's true passion was football. She went along with all that medical stuff just to please them, but she swore when she was eighteen she'd be out the door and on her way to a professional football career.

But for now, she'd just have to excel at her parent's training and fit in tournaments as often as she could.

She knelt down on the step, quickly laceing up her boots and running over to the car.

"Come on guys, the tournament starts soon, let's go!" Eliza grinned.

The smile was wiped from her face as she realized that her parents weren't in the car.

"Oh come on! You can't seriously expect us to walk!" Eliza cried, "It's twenty miles!".

She stepped out of their drive and looked up and down the street. They weren't there. "Mom? Dad? Okay if this is some kind of joke it isn't funny!" She called, jogging to the snd of the street and checking round the corner. They weren't there.

"Mom? Dad?" Eliza called, running back down the street and checking the other way. They weren't there.

Frantic, Eliza checked inside the house, in the garden, she even knocked on her neighbors doors, but they weren't anywhere.

Her parents were gone.


	3. Chapter 2

**Yay, finally another chapter! I know, I know it's been a while, but I've got exams coming up and my school's going insane :P Anyway, I've got an actual plot figured out for this story now, but I think the first few chapters will be just introducing the characters with little actual action-y stuff. Next chapter will be about the YDC characters, so that should be fun to write :) But, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read the chapter. Enjoy! **

* * *

"So, do you really think this is happening everywhere?" Lucas asked as he rummaged through the cupboard, so far finding no sign of anything resembling radiation sensors.

"No idea" Jake replied, "But I don't think it's just here. I mean, what's so special about this place?"

"Certainly not it's health and safety standards" Zoe groaned, recoiling from where a putrid mass of God knows what had collected at the back of the store cupboard.

"For once, I agree with you" Amy said, chucking Zoe a pair of gloves so she'd have less chance of burning her hands off on leaking chemicals.

So far, the four of them had been searching the various science labs for half an hour trying to find the radiation sensors, since as none of them were sixth formers they had no idea where they were.

During that time, Jake had managed to swipe a pretty large collection of chemicals when Lucas and Amy had their backs turned. He didn't worry about Zoe, since they'd been best friends since they were three, but he didn't feel like alienating two people who could turn out to be pretty good friends just because he wanted to be prepared in case something bad happened.

"I suppose, but shouldn't we go check it out, see how many adults have vanished?" Lucas said, his words bringing Jake back to reality.

"No need, I saw Tobi on the way, he's going with Connor and Melody to check it out" Amy said.

"Who's Tobi?" Zoe said.

"Friend of mine" Amy said. "Well, sort of."

"Sort of?" Zoe asked.

"I'm not the most sociable person in the world" Amy explained.

The subject was dropped, however, as Lucas punched the air and yelled "VICTORY!" holding a cardboard box aloft as if it held the key to eternal life.

Jake smiled, "Guessing you found the sensors then"

"Nope, just punching the air and screaming for no reason" Lucas said sarcastically, taking out a sensor and throwing it to him, then throwing two more to Zoe and Amy.

Amy and Jake had theirs switched on in an instant, but Zoe simply stared at hers.

"Activate, I command thee!" She cried, mashing random buttons in the hope that it would work.

"Switch on the side, Zo" Jake said, smiling at Zoe's technological incompetance.

"Sure, I knew that" Zoe said, flicking the switch.

"Sure you did" smirked Amy.

"Glad you agree with me" Zoe snarked back and Jake and Lucas rolled their eyes.

"Right, if we're not gonna stand here talking all day I'd suggest we split up to cover the school quicker" Jake said.

"Sounds like a plan" Zoe smiled, "We'll meet back here in half an hour, yeah?"

"Okay, see you then" Lucas said, agreeing to the unspoken descision that Zoe and Jake would stay together and so would Lucas and Amy.

After all, when things got weird you should always stick with the people you care about most.

* * *

Skyler groaned as the blue light cleared from her vision. Was she dead? She didn't think so, she was still in the car after all. Whatever the hell happened after death, she doubted that her family's battered old ford would make it to the afterlife too.

There was also a strange smell, kind of like when Kara was still at home and the two of them would attempt to make cakes and the smoke from the oven would fill the whole kitchen.

That was bad...wasn't it? She didn't know. Maybe it was because she'd hit her head. Everything was a bit blurry.

No, that wasn't her, that was smoke. Were they making cakes? Kara must have got the oven wrong again. They were...what was the word?

Burning.

Skyler's mind cleared and she coughed violently. Crap, crap crap crap. She'd played enough Grand Theft Auto to know that when cars start smoking it generally means they're going to explode.

"Luke?" she croaked, her voice hoarse from breathing too much smoke. She looked around and saw her brother still strapped into his seat, unconscious. She undid her seatbelt and clung to the seat, lowering herself down so she didn't fall on her brother.

"Come on Luke, wake up" Skyler cried, shaking him frantically then trying to get him out of his seatbelt. It stuck for a moment and Skyler started to panic, but she managed to yank it free and drag Luke towards the door.

The car was on its side, so Skyler had climb to get out. For a full grown adult that would be hard enough, but Skyler was twelve, short and far from strong.

"Luke, please wake up, I can't do this" Skyler said, fighting back tears as she tried in vain to haul Luke upwards

/Come on, WAKE UP/ she thought, her inner voice sounding far louder then it usually did. Her eyes widened in shock as Luke sat up suddenly, coughing and gasping for air.

"Sky? What's-"

"No time, just get out!" Skyler cried, scrambling up the seats and throwing herself out of the car with Luke close behind her.

/RUN!/ a voice in her mind, Luke's voice, called to her as he grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the smoking car. Skyler turned back to see a spark ignite in the car, and threw herself to the ground.

Luke stood over her, his hand held out as if to somehow hold back the explosion.

/Luke, get down!/ she thought spoke, since it seemed to be working so far.

/I don't need to, trust me/ Luke said in her mind, blue light shooting from his hand and sheilding them in a sphere of blue as the car exploded in a rageing fireball.

To Skyler, it was almost like it wasn't real. Flames roared around them, wrapping round the glowing blue bubble like scarlet tentacles, but it didn't even get hotter.

Luke had created a forcefeild.

An actual, propper forcrfeild.

And she has spoke using just her mind.

What the hell was happening?

* * *

Helloooo, grown ups? Anybody in?"

Eliza spun round, startled as she heard a girls voice calling through the letter box.

It had been three hours since her parents had disapeared, and so far she'd had no luck finding them. Obviously, they couldn't have simply walked away- they had no reason to, and they couldn't have gotten far enough to be out of sight by the time she'd looked round the corner.

She'd tried calling them, but neither her mobile nor the house phone was working, and the neighbors weren't in, so she couldn't use their phone.

She'd been just about to head out in search of her friend Timothy when the voice, accompanied by a loud and persistant knocking, had distracted her. Slightly annoyed at the interuption, she jogged downstairs and opened the door to find a tall, muscular boy with dark red hair, a freckle faced burnette who couldn't seem to keep still and a small, meek looking boy with messy hair.

"Aw damn you're not an adult" the girl pouted, looking pretty annoyed at the fact.

"Well by the looks of it neither are you" Eliza replied.

"Meh, true that" the girl smiled, "Please tell me you've seen an adult though 'cause this is getting really damn wierd"

Eliza's expression turned to one of confusion. All three of them were wearing the standard Skybrook Comprehensive uniform- surely in a school there would be adults.

She voiced those thoughts, and the taller boy answered her, "You'd think, but they just vanished" he said.

"What do you mean, vanished?" Eliza said, starting to get more and more worried.

"Like Connor said. There, gone. Bye bye grown ups" the girl said, "It was wierd, like they teleported or something"

Eliza's mind whirled, she leant againat the door frame for support as she tried to process the information. How could someone just vanish? It was impossible. She knew the science, people did not just vanish into thin air. But then again, that seemed to be the only option to explain her parents...

"Maybe they're dead" the girl said, not looking at all worried by the posibility. Eliza paled at the thought. Up until now she'd thought they'd just...well, she didn't know what they'd done but she'd never thought they could be dead

"Melody!" the two boys cried, the smaller one looking shocked that she'd said that, Connor simply looking annoyed like he was used to it.

"What?" Melody said, looking confused. "Oh, right. Sorry. Just thinking out loud, didn't mean to say that..."

"Don't worry, I'm sure they're alive somewhere" the smaller boy said, looking slightly nervous as all the attention was drawn to him. "I'm Tobi, by the way" he said, smiling slightly.

"Eliza" she replied, grateful for Tobi's reassurance. "So, do you guys have any idea why this is happening?"

"Not a clue" Connor sighed.

"As usual" Melody muttered under her breath, earning a death glare from her friend. "Hey, I'm just saying" she smirked, "I'm pretty confused too"

Eliza sighed, whatever was happening it couldn't be explained by a bunch of kids. Hell, she doubted it could be explained by anyone. Maybe whatever was causing this didn't matter, maybe they should just forget about the why and focus on what to do now. Eliza voiced those thoughts to the others, and the three of them agreed readily.

"Good, trying to explain this shit is killing my brain" Melody said, "So, got any ideas for what we should do next" She said, looking to Eliza.

Oh great, how did she end up as the leader. She looked at the group- Tobi who seemed to be trying to fade into the background, Melody who couldn't seem to keep quiet for a second and Connor, who smiled at her encouragingly and seemed to be looking to her as much as Melody was. She sighed, "We should go to the school, get people together" she said, "I guess that's a start".


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! So, the YDC chapter turned out a lot longer then I expected it to be, so I've decided to split it up into two or three parts so you don't have to wait weeks while I write it :) Also, the SYOC is now officially closed! I'm so happy with the ammount of characters I've gotten and I can't wait to write about them all :)**

If there was one problem with being in prison, Kara Costello would have to say it was the boredom. Sure, the place was full of psychos and some people may say that there was the moral guilt of having committed a crime, but none of that mattered to Kara. The so called 'psychos' had become her best friends in the six months she had been locked up here, and moral guilt? She'd been bored, and her little grand theft auto had been fun. End of story. It wasn't her fault it had been illegal.

But now, she was bored again.

The rhythmic tapping of her fingers on her leg cut through the silence of the cell in a repetitive four beat pattern as Kara wracked her brains for some way to pass the time.

"Ugh, Kara can you stop that? You're driving me insane" Phoenix scowled from the bottom bunk, looking up from her third book that week.

"Phee, you burned down your house, I think you're already insane" Kara said.

"Yes, and you're just the picture of sanity, aren't you?" Phoenix said sarcastically.

"Meh, who'd want to be sane? Sanity's boring" Kara smiled, leaping from where she's been sat on the top bunk and landing in a crouch on the floor before promptly falling on her butt.

Phoenix cracked a smile at Kara's landing, "Yeah, that failed" she said with a grin.

"Epically" Kara smirked.

"Not so epically" Phoenix corrected.

"Fine, lie to yourself if it makes you feel better about how awesome I am" Kara joked, jumping to her feet and pacing over to the barred window. She looked out of it for a second before an evil grin crossed her face.

"Oh God not that face" Phoenix said.

"What face? This it my normal face"

"No, that is your 'I'm Plotting Something Incredibly Reckless That Will Probobly Land Me In Solitary' face" Phoenix explained, her tone similar to one you would use with a small child.

"Actually, it's my 'I've Just Had An Awesome Idea' face" Kara grinned.

"Same thing for you" Phoenix said, standing up and walking over to her cellmate. "What are you planning anyway?"

"Badaas superpowered prison break" Kara grinned, gesturing to the pebble beach that lead down to the sea.

"Oh great" Phoenix muttered under her breath. She knew better then to try and stop Kara though- once she'd got an idea into her head it was near impossible to talk her out of it. "Just don't let the guards see it, okay?" She said, stepping away from the window. Who knows what would happen if the world found out about an insane ADHD juvinile delinquant with superpowers.

"You know I won't" Kara grinned, looking out of the window and focusing her mind.

She could feel the earth outside, a strange feeling in the back of her mind that let her sense where all the rocks were. When she was outside it felt like energy was flowing into her from the earth, making her stronger, but on the concrete floor of her cell she could only sense the earth. Still, she managed to single out four decent sized stones, and concentrated on calling them to her. She felt a pull in her mind and the stones rose up off the beach and flew towards her.

Grinning, Kara flattened herself against the wall as the stones smashed through the window, zooming through the bars and ramming into the door, two hitting the lock and one hitting each hinge.

"YES!" Kara cried, punching the air as the door collapsed outwards, "You gotta admit that was cool"

"I don't have to admit to anything, Rock Head" Phoenix smirked, "But it was pretty good" she smiled kindly.

"Hang on, a complilent? What the hell have you done with the real Phoenix?" Kara laughed, stepping out of the cell. "Hang on a sec, shouldn't the guards be here by now?"

"Yeah..." Phoenix said, a slight glint of silver catching her eye. "Okay that can't be right" she said, picking up the key and the radio next to it from the floor.

Kara looked at the radio in suprise, "Is it like, April Fools Day come early or something?" she said.

"I doubt it" Phoenix said, walking down the corridor and peeking into the survailence room. "There's nobody in here"

Kara followed her, her eyes running across the screens. "...Not possible" she said, her look of confusion mirroring Phoenix's.

There were no adults. None at all. The cell doors were still locked, the kids inside still showing up on the cameras, but there wasn't an adult in sight.

The two of them looked at each other, a look of understanding crossing between the two.

"Superpowers"

* * *

Kalel Darcy was having a pretty normal morning in prison. As usual, her friend and cellmate Tanya Moran was practicing her Katas in the small space of the cell, narrowly avoiding crashing into the walls every time she did a spinning or jumping kick. Kalel was sitting on the bed, focusing on creating a portal large enough to fit herself through.

...Yeah, it would be fair to say that Kalel's definition of normal was just a little bit off. But then again, who could be normal when you're a portal creating kleptomaniac?

Still, this was for Kalel a pretty typical morning until Phoenix and Kara came along.

"Kal, Tanya, you in there?" Kara's loud voice caused them both to lose focus, Tanya almost overbalencing from her punch and Kalel's portal teleporting her pillow to God knows where.

"Kara? What the hell are you doing here?" Tanya asked, looking out the window to see the small brown haired girl looking up with a grin.

"The adults have gone bye bye so we thought we'd pop over" she smiled.

"_The adults have gone bye bye_" Kalel deadpanned, "How do you mean the adults have gone bye bye?"

"Wait, you mean you don't know?" Phoenix's voice called through the door.

"Nope" Kalel said.

"But, we thought it was you" Kara said, "Didn't you like, portal the adults off somewhere?"

"I wish, I can't even portal myself" Kalel scowled, shooting her hands a death glare.

"So, you mean the adults have mysteriously dissapeared, and we have no idea how" Tanya summarised.

"Basically, yeah" Phoenix said. "We've seen the cameras, it's just the kids".

"Not even that, all the older ones are gone too" Kara said.

"Okay..." Kalel said, "We need to find out what's going on. Phee can you get us out?"

"Well, I've got the key, but..."

Hearing the crackle of fire, Kalel and Tanya quickly leapt out of the way as a blast of flame and a volly of rocks blasted the door off its hinges.

Kalel and Tanya were pressed flat against the wall, sheilded from the damage by one of Kalel's portals.

"Oh, now you work" she muttered as the portal faded away, brushing some dust from her arm as Phoenix extinguished the still burning door.

"Way to be inconspicuous" Tanya smirked, "I bet no one heard that"

"Meh, there aren't any guards" Kara smiled, "Might as well have fun"

Kalel sighed, "Well that's great and all, but guys?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time, use the bloody key"


	5. Chapter 4

**Finally finished! I've rewritten this chapter so many times it's unbeleiveable. I still don't like it- it's too dialogue-y and I don't have time to develop the characters much, but if I didn't just post it I'd keep on redoing it and then it would take me weeks to update :P Oh well, I'm thinking of writing a spin off from this with oneshots for each YDC kid about what got them arrested. What do you guys think?**

Ten minutes later, the population of Sanford Institute were gathered in the canteen, shouting, screaming, fighting and generally causing complete and utter chaos. Basically the norm for a group of underage criminal maniacs.

In a small room off the side of the canteen Xavier Thorne, Valentine Monaco, Cassandra Callero and Joel Trevaylen stood together in a corner, surveying the dozen or so kids that were sat around the table.

Xavier recognised most of them, after all, he knew pretty much everyone in the YDC. Kara, Phoenix, Kalel and Tanya- the four girls who had begun the prison break- were clustered together in the corner of the table, but most of the other kids sat alone. Which, to be fair, wasn't suprising considering the mental state of some of them.

"So, are you sure these are the ones?" Xavier asked, his eyes flicking over the group with acalculating look.

"Do you think I'd bring them in if they weren't?" Cassandra said, "I've seen the future Xav, some people" she looked to Kara, "Have been pretty obvious about their powers."

"I know, I heard the explosions" Xavier said. "Is it just me or is it just the nutters that have powers?"

"I think you might be on to something there- after all, Snakey's got powers" Valentine smirked, earning a death glare from the tall, hairless boy standing next to her.

"I'm an amoral sociopath Val, not insane." Joel said, and Xavier grinned.

"Exactly what I've been telling people my whole life" he said.

"Wow, I wonder why they don't belive you" Valentine deadpanned.

"I don't know, maybe the murders?" Joel smirked.

"Or the manipulation" Cas added.

"Oh come on, it was only three people!" Xavier said.

"That's three more then us" Val said, a feeling of slight uneasiness creeping over her. It was easy to forget how dangerous Xavier really was, what with his charismatic and funny demenour, but she knew that he'd kill her without a second thought if he needed to. Val was fully aware that she was in a dangerous position, but she really didn't have a choice. In a place filled with thugs and psychos the safest place for her was at the top.

"Then you three are really missing out on some fun" Xavier grinned.

"Yeah, sure, I'll keep that in mind" Joel said. "Now can we please just get down to buisness?" he said with a sigh, "We're risking enough having all these people together in one room, we don't want them to get too impatient."

"He's right. If these guys get pissed off we'll be dead faster then you can say 'superpowers'" Cas agreed.

"Well, I'd better not piss them off then" Xavier smiled, stepping away fron corner and going to stand at the head of the table.

Valentine and Joel claimed the chairs at either side of him, trying to look as non-threatening as possible- something that was pretty hard for Joel. And Cassandra simply plopped herself down at the table, keeping her distance from the more psychotic individuals. She wasn't exactly high up on the pecking ladder in the YDC, but Val had recruited her because her powers of precognition allowed her to tell who had powers.

Well, most of the time anyway. She could only tell who had powers when she actually foresaw them in use. Which was why Valentine was glad she had a more covert power. If people knew she had powers, they'd know she was dangerous. She didn't want the spotlight, her place was backstage pulling the strings. Like now for example. Focusing her powers, Val tried to exude an aura of calm over the room. She felt the emotion flooding through her, and smiled as the dozen or so faces in the room relaxed. She'd done her part, now it was time for Xavier to do his.

_Showtime_.

* * *

The amalgamation of voices filling the room turned quiet as Xavier stood at the head of the table. Even Kara and Tanya stopped their (incredibly violent) thumb war to listen.

"Sorry for keeping you so long" Xavier smiled warmly, "But I don't think you'll mind once I tell you why you're here"

Every eye in the room was now trained on him, and Xavier felt a feeling of triumph. He'd got them.

"I'm pretty sure some of you already know why you're here" he said, looking to the four girls in the corner, "But some of you" he looked this time to the rest, "Have absoloutly no idea."

He saw a few confused looks throughout the room. Daniel Hwan (a murderer who he'd spoken to a few times) was one of the few who didn't look completely lost, simply watching with an analytical gaze.

"Well, I'm not going to tiptoe around it. There is one thing you all have in common, and that is that you have...for lack of a better word, superpowers".

Silence.

Out of the group, Xavier counted seven 'What The Fuck' looks, two insane grins (Kara and Mason Sinclair, who was known throughout the Institute as being completely and utterly batshit insane), three who looked curious (Phoenix, Kalel and Daniel), and the rest just looking calm.

"See, told you" Kara grinned at Phoenix, who rolled her eyes.

"So, you seriously expect us to beleive that everyone in this room is some sort of superhero...villan...whatever" Daniel said, looking skeptical.

"Nope, I'm going to prove it to you." Xavier said, "Joel?"

Joel grinned, then swiftly scaled the wall and hung upside down from the ceiling, focusing on copying the foot pads of a gecko so that he wouldn't fall.

Kalel smiled, "So...super climbing?"

"Not quite" Joel said.

"He can imitate reptiles" Val explained as Joel flipped down and showed off a pair of (downright terrifying) snake fangs. "I know, gives a whole new meaning to the nickname Snake" she smirked.

"Okay that is cool" Tanya said, "So what about you two?"

"Xavier and I don't have powers" Val said, earning a skeptical look from Daniel.

"So...he's in charge why, exactly?" Daniel said.

"Because, we don't need someone super powerful to lead us, we need someone smart" Xavier said. "Plus, do any of you have a plan?"

Blank faces stared back at him.

"Exactly" Xavier said. "I, on the other hand, have a pretty good idea of what we're gonna do".

"And that would be..." Phoenix said.

"Well, as you all know thinhs have been getting wierd here. Cas-" he gestured to Cas, who smiled shyly and gave a small wave, "Can see the future, and has found out exactly what's happening."

"I wouldn't say exactly..." Cas said.

"Well, sort of what's happening then" Xavier said.

"Wow, you're really filling me with confidence here" Kalel snarked, causing Xavier to glare at her.

"What I mean is, I can see that we're sealed in a sort of...dome-y thing where everyone over 15 has vanished." Cas said.

"Sealed in? Will we run out of air?" Tanya asked.

"No, apparently it's not going to kill us" Valentine said.

"Yeah, we're just...stuck" Cas finished, looking slightly nervous with the entire rooms attention on her.

"The point is, there aren't any adults coming" Xavier said, "Which means there's no one to stop us. We're not prisoners anymore, we're the powerful ones. So, don't you think we should be in charge?" Xavier said.

Murmers of agreement filled the room.

"So, here's my plan" He said, concentrating on his words as he spoke. It had to be perfect if he wanted them to obey "We, are going to go into town, brutally murder anyone who stands in our way and take our place as the rulers of this new world."

Xavier let a small smile cross his face as his new followers began murmering in agreement, their eyes glazed over and their faces blank. It had worked.

He felt a pull on his hands, like he was holding threads connected to each member of the group. He knew it well by now- that feeling of control and power that came with holding the will of another person in his hands. It was so easy to control them- all he had to do was plant the order in their minds, and they'd follow it like the sheep they were. They wouldn't even know that they were being controlled.

That was the reason why Xavier had made them beleive they were normal. If they had just the slightest suspicion that their will wasn't their own, then they could fight back.

But this way, they had no idea.

They would be his to command, no matter what.


End file.
